October 16, 1973: Willie Mays Bows Out, Donald Trump Butts In

October 16, 1973: Two notable occurrences in New York City's Borough of Queens. One legend, who graced American sports for 23 years, bows out. Another legend, who has disgraced American life ever since, butts in.

The Oakland Athletics win Game 3 of the World Series, 3-2 in 11 innings over the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. Each team's ace starts: Jim "Catfish" Hunter for the A's, Tom Seaver for the Mets. Neither figured in the decision, although Seaver did strike out 12 batters while walking only 1 in 8 innings.

In the bottom of the 10th, Willie Mays pinch-hits for Mets relief pitcher Tug McGraw against Paul Lindblad, and grounds to short, where Bert Campaneris turns a force play. It is Mays' last major league appearance.

With 1 out in the top of the 11th, Mets reliever Harry Parker walked Ted Kubiak of nearby Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. Parker struck Ángel Mangual out, but catcher Jerry Grote couldn't handle it, and Kubiak reached 2nd base. Campaneris singled to center field, scoring Kubiak. Campaneris was out trying to stretch his hit into a double, but he got the winning RBI.

This put Lindblad into position to be the winning pitcher. The Mets did threaten in the bottom of the 11th: Wayne Garrett led off with a single to center, leading A's manager Dick Williams to bring in his bullpen ace, Rollie Fingers. Félix Millán bunted Garrett over to 2nd. With those 2 ordinary hitters out of the way, Fingers now had to face 2 men who are still among the best hitters in Met history. But he got Rusty Staub to fly to center, and Cleon Jones to ground to short, nailing down the Oakland win.

Afterward, in a private clubhouse meeting‚ Williams told his A's players that he will resign after the Series, win or lose. He has had it with the meddling of team owner Charlie Finley. Alvin Dark succeeded Williams.

Also on this day, Brian Cornelius Schottenheimer is born in Denver. At the time, his father, Marty Schottenheimer, was in his 1st coaching job, as linebackers coach with the Portland Storm of the World Football League.

Brian would grow up in the suburbs of Cleveland and Kansas City, while his father was head coach of the Browns and later the Chiefs. He got his 1st coaching job in 1997, assisting Dick Vermeil on the St. Louis Rams. Marty would put Brian on his staff in Kansas City in 1998, Washington in 2001, and San Diego from 2002 to 2005. He has also coached at Syracuse University, USC, the Jets, with the Rams again, the University of Georgia, and Indianapolis, but has yet to receive his 1st head coaching job. He is now the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks. (UPDATE: In 2025, he was named head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.)

Also on this day, David Gerald Unsworth is born in Chorley, Lancashire, England. A centreback, he played for Liverpool-based Everton, and helped them win the 1995 FA Cup. He was twice caretaker manager of Lancashire club Preston North End and once (so far) of Everton, and now manages Everton's reserves.

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Also on this day, Donald Trump is mentioned in The New York Times for the 1st time. The story is of a lawsuit filed against the 27-year-old Trump, his father Fred, and their real estate company, by the U.S. Department of Justice, then (at least, for another 4 days) reporting to Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who reported to President Richard Nixon. The charge is housing discrimination in their Queens apartment complexes.

In his 1987 autobiography Trump: The Art of the Deal -- which was actually written by Tony Schwartz, then writing for GQ, and who now correctly calls Trump a "sociopath" -- Trump said, "The idea of settling drove me crazy... I'd rather fight than fold, because as soon as you fold once, you get the reputation of being a folder."

Nevertheless, on June 10, 1975, Fred (who had previously been arrested for attending a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in Queens in 1927) and Donald signed an agreement prohibiting them from "discriminating against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling." The decree made it clear that the Trumps did not view the agreement as a surrender, saying the settlement was "in no way an admission" of a violation.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump officially became famous by being exposed as a bigot. And when you're officially too bigoted for Richard Nixon, that means that you've got a problem.

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October 16, 1973 was a Tuesday. Football was in midweek. There were 2 games in the NBA. The New York Knicks beat the Buffalo Braves, 117-91 at Madison Square Garden. And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Houston Rockets, 106-101 at the Hofheinz Pavilion (now the Fertitta Center) in Houston.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The San Antonio Spurs beat the Virginia Squires, 116-106 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Islanders and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 4-4 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

And there was 1 game played in the World Hockey Association: The Toronto Toros beat the Los Angeles Sharks, 3-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

October 8, 1972: Campaneris vs. LaGrow

October 8, 1972: Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Bert Campaneris of the Oakland Athletics leads off the bottom of the 1st inning at the Oakland Coliseum with a single, steals 2nd and 3rd bases, and scores on a single. Campaneris would end up getting 3 hits on the day against the Detroit Tigers.

In the 7th, Tiger reliever Lerrin LaGrow -- possibly at the urging of manager Billy Martin, who frequently encouraged such behavior -- purposely hit Campaneris with a pitch, on the ankle. Campaneris responded by throwing his bat at LaGrow, who just barely ducked in time to avoid getting hit with it.

There was a bench-clearing brawl, and Martin had to be restrained from going after Campaneris. Both Campaneris and LaGrow were suspended for the rest of the series. The A's won the game, 5-0, and took a 2-games-to-0 lead in the series. But the Tigers would fight back in Detroit to force a 5th and deciding game.

In 2007, for work, I had to contact a Phoenix-area real estate office. Turned out, it was run by LaGrow. Now, I don't condone what Campaneris did, but I will say that, 35 years later, LaGrow wasn't any nicer.

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October 8, 1972 was a Sunday. Game 2 was also played in the National League Championship Series. The Cincinnati Reds scored 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Three Rivers Stadium, to tie up the series. Joe Morgan hit a home run. The series went to a deciding 5th game, and the Reds won, before losing the World Series to the A's in 7.

And these games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the New Orleans Saints, 45-21 at Yankee Stadium.

* The New York Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins 27-17 at Shea Stadium. Yes, the Giants and the Jets were both playing at home, at the same time, kicking off at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Attendance in The Bronx: 65,720. Attendance in Queens: 63,841. Both were officially sellouts, so it's not clear which team would have sold more tickets had they both played in 100,000-seat stadiums, such as the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Rose Bowl could then have held. This was during what turned out to be the Dolphins' undefeated 17-0 season.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Baltimore Colts, 23-20 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 14-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Atlanta Falcons, 26-23 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) Steve Owens, winner of the 1969 Heisman Trophy for the University of Oklahoma, scored the winning touchdown as the clock wound down.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 38-14 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cleveland Browns, 31-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Denver Broncos, 21-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Green Bay Packers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 20-17 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings, 19-17 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-13 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, 31-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Oakland Raiders beat the Houston Oilers, 34-0 at the Astrodome in Houston.

September 8, 1965: The 1st Man to Play All 9 Positions In an MLB Game

Bert Campaneris, after the A's moved to Oakland

September 8, 1965: Against the California Angels at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, Dagoberto "Bert" Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics becomes the first player to play all 9 positions in the same game, as part of a special promotion featuring the popular 23-year-old Cuban, whose main position is shortstop.

He began the game at shortstop and played, in order for the next 8 innings: 2nd base, 3rd base, left field, center field, right field, 1st base, pitcher (giving up a run on a hit and 2 walks) and catcher. With the game tied at 3-3 after 9 innings, manager Haywood Sullivan (later better known as the general manager of the Boston Red Sox) sent Rene Lachemann in to replace Campaneris, who was injured in a collision at the plate with Ed Kirkpatrick to end the top of the 9th.

The Angels scored 2 runs in the 13th inning, and defeated the A's 5-3. Attendance: 21,576, meaning there were about 13,000 empty seats, so the promotion didn't exactly work.

There appears to be no surviving footage of this game, but Campaneris survived the last 3 seasons in Kansas City, and the 1967-68 move to Oakland, to help the A's become a dynasty in the 1970s. He only batted .259 lifetime, but had 2,249 hits stole 649 bases, led the American League in stolen bases 6 times, made 6 All-Star Games, and reached the postseason 6 times: 5 straight AL Western Division titles with the A's, including 3 straight World Series in 1972, '73 and '74; and the 1979 AL West title with the California Angels. As of September 8, 2022, he is still alive.

Through the 2022 season, there have been 5 players to play all 9 positions in a major league game. The others are:

* César Tovar, for the Minnesota Twins, on September 22, 1968 -- oddly enough, against Campaneris and the A's. He pitched a scoreless inning.

* Scott Sheldon, for the Texas Rangers, on September 6, 2000. The Chicago White Sox jumped out to a 10-1 lead after 2 innings. Sheldon pitched to 1 batter, Jeff Liefer, in the 8th inning, and struck him out.

* Shane Halter, of the Detroit Tigers, on October 1, 2000, just 26 days later, on the final day of the regular season, against the Twins. Halter pitched to 1 batter, Matt LeCroy, in the 8th inning, and walked him. The game ended as a 13-12 walkoff win for the Tigers.

* Andrew Romine, of the Tigers, on September 30, 2017, against the Twins. It was the next-to-last day of the regular season. He, too, pitched to just 1 batter, also in the 8th inning, getting Miguel Sanó to ground out. The Tigers won, 3-2.

No player has also managed to be a designated hitter in the same game, to make it 10, because that would require him leaving the DH position, thus his team giving it up, and forcing the pitcher to bat unless a pinch-hitter could be found. No player can switch from a field position to the DH.

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September 8, 1965 was a Wednesday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Yankee Stadium. Jim Bouton started, but the elbow he injured earlier in the year, which ended up ruining his career, left him in too much pain to pitch effectively. (He had not yet started using a knuckleball.) The Senators tied the game in the top of the 9th, but in the bottom of the 9th, Elston Howard singled home a rookie named Roy White with the winning run.

Mickey Mantle did not play. The Yankees got home runs by Archie Moore (no relation to the boxing champion of the same name) and Ray Barker. Rookie Bobby Murcer went 0-for-4. The Yankees had won the last 5 Pennants, and 29 of the last 44. But age and injuries caught up with them this season. By the time they won another Pennant in 1976, White would be the only one left from this team.

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 11-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds knocked Carlton Willey out of the box in the 1st inning with 4 runs. Frank Robinson and Deron Johnson hit home runs for the Reds. Jim O'Toole went the distance for the win.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Tony Horton hit a home run, with Tony Conigliaro on base, in the top of the 10th inning. Conigliaro had homered earlier. Both Tonys would see their career come to sad ends, in Horton's case with the Indians. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* A doubleheader was split at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 2-0. Steve Barber pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Hank Aguirre. Apparently, Barber's arm was neither sore nor a little stiff. (A reference to a line in Ball Four, the book by the aforementioned Jim Bouton.)

The Detroit Tigers won the nightcap, 5-0. Dave Wickersham pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Darold Knowles. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 0-for-6 with a walk, and Al Kaline went 2-for-6 with a walk.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew did not play. The Twins were about to win their 1st Pennant under that name, the franchise's 1st since they were "the old Washington Senators" in 1933.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Braves, 6-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Dick Stuart, the slugger who was so bad a fielder that even putting him at 1st base wasn't safe, to the point where he was nicknamed "Dr. Strangeglove" and "Stonefingers," hit a home run for the Phillies. Hank Aaron and Joe Torre hit them for the Braves.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 12-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays hit 2 home runs, Willie McCovey 1.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers were not scheduled. They started a series in Los Angeles the next night, and Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game for the Dodgers.